height reference for wings - feature creation

[MetalSkin]

G'day Guys,

I'm trying to make some features for a map I'm working on and am having problems with scale.

Now Sloth posted in the Features Resource thread (http://spring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4047) a

a s30 with a stack of 6ft(2m) tall people in it to help get your scale right. Use this to get your scale correct for spring.

I've pm'd him but yet to hear back so I thought I would ask in a thread.

If I'm modelling a feature in wings, how do you determine your scale? I would love to use what Sloth posted in the other thread, but I can't figure out how to get a s30 into Wings and I have as yet not found a conversion utility to perform such an import.

Is it possible to import any of the Arm or Core vehicles/bots to determine scale?

How do you play with scale? Personally I wouldn't have thought it mattered as the 3d model would be scalable and would be a part of the export process.

I've looked at the Basic s3o Unit Making Guide, but it says nothing at all about scale.

:edit:

This could have been posted in the Art & Modelling area but I put it in here because this is where the sticky is for feature resources and in that sticky is the scale reference by Sloth, hence why I thought this was a more appropriate place to post this query.

[aGorm]

You ca nmake things in any scale you like if its goona be a feature. Just resize it once in UpSpring.

Works fine for me and my big trees. Those stated out about the size of a factory, Upspring took care of the rest.

aGorm

[MetalSkin]

ahh thanks... upspring is the key.

I did a quick search and found "3.4 Step 4- (scaling) " in the Feature Making Tutorial Sticky on the Art and Modelling area. I hadn't looked at this sticky in detail cause there are a major parts missing (the first two steps, modelling and UV Mapping), hence why I've been looking at the Basic Unit Making Guide instead.

I tell ya what, its hard being new to all this and trying to find the info you need

[Pressure Line]

if you want a refernce, an ota peewee is about 25 units high in wings. a core energy storage is about 60 units across.

[MetalSkin]

if you want a refernce, an ota peewee is about 25 units high in wings. a core energy storage is about 60 units across.

Ahh thanks for that, that gives me a good guide :)

Are there any issues in how big you make your textures for your model? Is there a rule of thumb on what size they should be per unit?

[Pressure Line]

512x512 or 256x256 for normal units (size dependant) and i wouldnt go up to 1024x1024 except for things like commanders or krogoth/nuke silo level units

[Saktoth]

lol Sloth.

[MetalSkin]

lol Sloth.

I do not understand... obviously an in joke.

[lurker]

in that sticky is the scale reference by Sloth

lol Sloth.

"Feature resource thread...." author: smoth
He's made a mod and a half, and much more. You should learn his name.

[aGorm]

512x512 or 256x256 for normal units (size dependant) and i wouldnt go up to 1024x1024 except for things like commanders or krogoth/nuke silo level units

Or of course giant trees...

Remeber that using a 1024 map is sometimes more effecient if for instance a lot of features will be able to re use areas of teh same map. better to have 7 features on 1 1024 map sharing space than 7 differnt 512 maps.

aGorm

[Pressure Line]

well yes, thats true. assuming all the features you are making will go on the same map.

but if i say make a tree for you, and a conctrete tank blocker for an s44 map, it makes no sense to have them share any part of the uvmap

*edit* unless its a concrete tree....

[aGorm]

Well natch... that goes without saying.

aGorm

[MetalSkin]

in that sticky is the scale reference by Sloth

lol Sloth.

"Feature resource thread...." author: smoth
He's made a mod and a half, and much more. You should learn his name.

Ahh i c, I did a typo when I typed sloth. sorry to the artist known as smoth, was an innocent typo by one who doesn't as yet know who the famous people are around here.

And once again guys, thanks for all the info, every little bit helps.

[AF]

Apparently as discovered by smoth, rescaling in upspring borks the normals causing the shading ingame to be all borked.

Rescale prior to exporting to upspring in your modelling program.

[MetalSkin]

Apparently as discovered by smoth, rescaling in upspring borks the normals causing the shading ingame to be all borked.

Rescale prior to exporting to upspring in your modelling program.

Ahh so I'm back to what Pressure Line said... is it possible to get models of spring stuff into Wings to assist in comparison, or does anyone know how to import what Smoth made into wings?

[Gnomre]

Apparently as discovered by smoth, rescaling in upspring borks the normals causing the shading ingame to be all borked.

Rescale prior to exporting to upspring in your modelling program.

Discovered? No offense to smoth, but that's been a known issue in Upspring for... practically ever. At least as long as I can remember. It's exceedingly simple to recalculate the normals in upspring (there are two methods given to you, in fact) but of course those won't suit all models at all times so sometimes you might need to go back, pre-scale, and re-import the model. It's rare that you should need to, though.

Upspring has a "Save object" button. To export an entire unit, first select all of the pieces at once, press 'M' (merge) so they all are one piece, then go to save object. Saving as obj works fine, I'm not sure about other formats. Then you can import it into anything that supports obj, though in my experience Upspring will split all the vertices upon export. But since it's just a scale reference, that doesn't particularly matter.

[Pressure Line]

sometimes it does, sometimes it doesnt, ill host some ota unit .obj files in a tic

*edit*
http://tinmanfunkymonkey.orcon.net.nz/obj/corestor.obj
core energy storage

http://tinmanfunkymonkey.orcon.net.nz/obj/corsolar.obj
core solar plant

http://tinmanfunkymonkey.orcon.net.nz/obj/peewee.obj
peewee

http://tinmanfunkymonkey.orcon.net.nz/obj/stumpy.obj
stumpy

[MetalSkin]

...ill host some ota unit .obj files in a tic

Thanks mate, that helps a lot. Strangely though the models seem very simple and appear to have missing faces... Well they seem simple when I compare them to the one's I see in the WIP thread. I know they need to be a low poly count, but I'm surprised at how the peewee looks.

Compared to a human how high is a peewee? (presuming the average human is 6 foot tall).